John Cook Returns to Gawker After Stint at Yahoo

Andrew Golis, general editor for blogging at Yahoo! News, posted the news of Cook’s departure on his personal blog this morning. He then proceeded to put out the call for his replacement, who would be a Senior National Affairs Reporter at The Upshot, as well as a Night Blogger. Apply away, struggling web loggers!

In explaining the move, Golis inserts a tiny little dig at Gawker into his well-wishes for Cook:

Sadly, John Cook is heading back to Gawker. John’s a brilliant reporter, but he decided that he prefers the license Gawker gave him to add his opinions into his reporting to the scale and credibility Yahoo! News could offer.

The testiness recalls Gawker overlord Nick Denton’s vocal annoyance in a tweet that went out upon news of Cook’s decision to abandon Gawker for Golis’ blog network at Yahoo.

Damn! Gawker’s awesome John Cook is about to disappear into the maw of Yahoo. Someone else — WSJ? — should save him. We tried.

At The Awl, Choire Sicha, a former Gawker editor himself, said the tweet “wildly undermined” Cook, but any bitterness must have subsided now that the muckraking reporter will return to Denton’s cherished flagship. Perhaps that maw really did get the best of him.

Cook will now be free to “add his opinions” to his Gawker reporting in a way that threatened the “credibility” at Yahoo. Chalk it up as a win for the creative underclass.